Box Office: ‘The Wolverine’ Sharp With $4 Million Thursday Night

Fox’s latest “X-Men” outing, “The Wolverine,” kick started what should be a boffo domestic opening weekend with $4 million from Thursday late-night screenings.

The Hugh Jackman solo mutant pic beat this summer’s “World War Z,” which collected $3.6 million in late-nights and grossed $66 million opening weekend last month. “The Wolverine” should do better than that through Sunday, with a take at north of $70 million.

Still, opening late-night grosses are often difficult to gauge since they’re so heavily driven by first-responders.

The Fox-Marvel film has a significant pre-existing fanboy core, though adults likely will show up for the film throughout the weekend. Pic’s received mostly positive buzz so far.